WITH Mike Tyson extremely likely to make it into Canastota?s Hall of Fame at his earliest eligibility in June, you can expect to see the New Yorker back on the sports pages next year. Which is fine with me; Tyson was a major factor behind my burning affection for the sport. But where does he belong in the all-time lists?
Some crazed Tyson fanatics still claim Mike is the greatest fighter who ever lived. Others dismiss his ring career as an elongated farce. Neither, of course, is true.
For those lucky, and old, enough to remember the sheer excitement that Mike brought to the sport ? almost overnight ? in the mid-1980s, will never forget Tyson and, until heavyweight boxing gets exciting again, he will forever be the marker against which to compare the current crop.
How many times have you heard someone say, ?Boxing needs someone like Tyson to come along?? Not someone like Ali, not someone like Louis. Someone like Tyson.
Because when he erupted onto the boxing landscape it was utterly exhilarating. After he served Trevor Berbick the spaghetti legs and turned to Kevin Rooney with his arms spread wide, you just knew the boy was something special. And he was only 20 years old; he had been a professional for less than two years.
Nobody did that to Berbick again, and the delusional Canadian contested with some hefty hitters after being mauled by Tyson. The way Mike dipped, dodged and threw catastrophic combinations made his fights unmissable.
Fans got angry with Bonecrusher Smith when he refused to fight in perhaps the most forgettable contest of Mike?s entire career. Fans wanted more of the public muggings.
They soon got them. Perhaps Tyson?s greatest performance came in January 1988 against Larry Holmes. Granted, Larry was past his best but he was still a damn good fighter. When ?Iron? Mike knocked him silly ? and nobody ever did that to Holmes again, either ? Larry was still four years away from ending the unbeaten run of Ray Mercer and giving Evander Holyfield 12 rounds-worth of trouble. It was seven years before he nearly regained his WBC title against Oliver McCall and it was a mind-boggling 14 years before he retired. For the record, Holmes? post-Tyson tally was 21-3.
Then of course, Mike convinced a petrified Michael Spinks never to fight again. That, sadly, is the pinnacle. With his flammable world exploding around him, he forgot how he came to power in the first place. He started to cut corners. He surrounded himself with ?yes? men. He got lazy.
The first hint of Tyson the mortal came in February 1989. Old US magazine KO ran the headline ?Frank Bruno proves Mike Tyson can be beaten!? A year later, he was. The fight against Buster Douglas should have been the wake-up call. But we all know what happened next.
He should get credit for regaining two portions of his crown in 1996 and for a short time it looked like Tyson was as good as ever. But in feasting on Bruno (again) and a frightfully inept Bruce Seldon, Mike met two of history?s weakest, and most terrified, heavyweight titlists of all time.
His career wound down like countless other champions of the past. But he had to do it in a blinding limelight. He had to come to terms with the blatant disintegration of his physical gifts in front of the world. And still we watched. Fans desperate to see him turn back the clock; haters clamouring to see him beaten again. It is little wonder he was happy to turn his back on the sport at the end.
So, where does he rate? He beat many decent heavyweights. One can fault his level of opposition but you can?t dispute the manner in which he won those fights. However, his record is sorely lacking a ?W? over a Holyfield or a Lennox Lewis. Another glaring problem with Tyson-the-all-time-great is he never emerged from adversity with a victory. His chance, of course, came in round eight against Douglas when he summoned a wicked uppercut from somewhere and decked the challenger. Sadly for Tyson, Douglas was more motivated and determined on that night than at any point in his career.
But Mike?s peak was painfully short, especially when you consider how long he was supposed to be champion for. It seemed like Mike would cruise to 100-0. When someone so promising misses their destiny, it will always haunt them. Tyson is no different.
It is hard to discount Tyson, though. He is clearly one of the best heavyweights ever. Watch him at his peak and tell me otherwise. The fearless Mike Tyson that reigned from 1986-1990 would have given any heavyweight in history a torrid time. If you can pick 10 better, or rather, more accomplished heavyweights I won?t argue. If you can pick many more, though, I would be surprised.
As time passes, history will be kind to ?Iron? Mike Tyson. Just like it is to Jack Johnson and Sonny Liston. Bad reputations can be forgotten, but quality never dies.
Thanks for reading.
